Fewer foreign students chose to study in the United States in 2025-26, and the number could drop even further amid a crackdown on immigration by the Donald Trump administration , a latest report has found.
An HT analysis of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows illegal crossings at both US land borders have fallen dramatically. The CBP tracks data from October to September, the US government’s fiscal year. They are not ones that people can try again and again, the way that they could if they were from, say, Guatemala, and could just very easily try if they fail first.
As many as 15 per cent fewer applicants from India sought admission in US colleges and universities. The data showed that applicants from Asia saw an 11 per cent decline, while 17 per cent fewer Africans applied for higher education in the US. The fall in numbers in Asia was driven by fewer Indians applying, whereas Ghana drove the fall in the numbers from Africa, with a 34 per cent decline, the Common App report said. Encounters with Indian migrants attempting to cross the southwestern border from Mexico have plunged 99%, while those along the northern border with Canada have fallen 91%. Between October 2025 and May 2026, it recorded 20,614 encounters with Indian migrants nationwide, down from nearly 29,000 during the same period in FY2025. At its peak during a comparable 8-month period between October and May in FY2023, encounters involving Indian migrants had surged to 67,212.
Because these trips are expensive, “I think what we’ve seen is that making it so that people do not think that they actually have a chance of a good outcome if they come here through these channels does have an impact.
India is among the countries with the steepest decline in the number of applicants to study in the US, according to a report by the Common App . It’s a lot of money to invest to put forth towards an outcome,” says Guerra of illegal migrants from India.
